Africa in the ancient world (3500 BC – 800 BC). The first cities, the first writing, the first kings who called themselves gods. These articles cover Mesopotamia, Egypt, the Indus and the Bronze Age world that connected them.
With no compass ~4,500 years ago, the Great Pyramid of Giza's four sides align to true north within about 0.05°, and its base is level to ~2 cm. The leading explanation is astronomical observation of the stars plus precise surveying.
· 2560 BCThe pyramids weren't built by whipped slaves. A workers' town beside Giza reveals paid, well-fed, skilled Egyptians — cared for in life and death.
· 2560 BCThe Great Pyramid of Giza wasn't built by whipped slaves but by organized, well-fed Egyptian workers — for a god-king who dreamed of eternity.
· 2560 BCNearly every Egyptian royal tomb was robbed, yet the least important boy-king Tutankhamun's tomb survived intact — because it was small and hidden.
· 1323 BCTutankhamun's tomb held over 130 walking sticks, many showing real wear. A 2010 DNA/CT study suggests the boy king had a clubbed foot and bone disease and leaned on them to walk.
· 1323 BCIn 1922 Howard Carter peered by candlelight through a sealed door in Egypt's Valley of the Kings and said 'wonderful things' — the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb, the only nearly-intact pharaoh's tomb ever found.
· 1922